KINGSTON >> A female corrections officer who sued Ulster County for what she said was a hostile work environment has been awarded $400,000 by a federal court jury.

The defendants in the case have made a motion to dismiss Patricia Watson’s claims.

The ruling in favor of Watson came Aug. 19 in U.S. District Court, Northern District of New York. She was one of five women who sued Ulster County and county Jail officials, alleging on-the-job sexual harassment. The other plaintiffs were Ann Marie Legg, Nancy Reyes and Patricia Meadors. Amy Negron brought a separate lawsuit.

A jury awarded Negron $440,000 in 2012, though a federal judge later threw out most of her claims. He did allow to stand a claim by Negron that actions within the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office, which oversees the jail, after 2006 created a hostile work environment. As a result of that decision, the judge reduced the monetary award to Negron to $80,000.

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According to the women’s attorney, Joseph Ranni, Meadors’ case was discontinued before trial because she was promoted to corporal. He said her main claim in the lawsuit related to not being promoted.

The jury that ruled in favor of Watson found the claims by Reyes and Legg did not rise to federal standards to recover damages, Ranni said.

“What happened to Patricia Watson was horrendous,” Ranni said Wednesday. He said no matter where a woman works, she should be protected from harassment.

Ranni said some positive changes have been made at the Ulster County Jail since the women filed their lawsuit but that the verdict should send the message that more needs to be done.

Ulster County Attorney Beatrice Havranek did not return calls about the case this week. Sheriff Paul Van Blarcum referred comments to an attorney, Matthew J. Kelly, because the matter still is in litigation.

Kelly, of the law firm Roemer, Wallens, Gold & Mineaux, said Friday he filed a motion following the verdict to dismiss Watson’s claims. He said he believes once the court reviews his motion, it will rule there was no merit to her claims, just as it found no merit to Reyes’ and Legg’s claims, or order a new trial.

The proof in the case presented by Watson demonstrated the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office immediately responded to her complaint regarding harassment by a co-worker and took action to resolve it, Kelly said. He said he felt the jury was swayed by Watson’s “sympathetic appearance.”

“The case law and the statutory law would not require us to do anything more than what we did,” Kelly said.

He said he doesn’t expect a decision by Judge Frederick J. Scullin Jr. until spring 2015 because the trial transcript and motions need to be completed first.

Watson is on permanent disability leave from her job due to a knee injury, while Legg is temporarily out on non-job-related disability, Kelly said. He said Meadors still works at the jail but that Negron and Reyes no longer work there.

The women’s lawsuit, filed in 2009, alleged the female corrections officers were sexually harassed, retaliated against when they filed complaints and passed over for promotions. The suit claimed the sexual harassment and discrimination came in a variety of forms from their male counterparts, including comments about women’s “breasts, buttocks (and) genitalia, sexual acts, solicitations and other unwelcome offensive conduct.”

The lawsuit also alleged the female officers were exposed to pornography at workstations and on computer screens, assigned to less-desirable duties than males and, in one case, denied medical treatment even though the jail’s nurse recommended it.

The suit sought unspecified monetary damages. The $400,000 awarded to Watson is divided into two $200,000 awards for two separate claims — that she was subjected to a hostile work environment that the county failed to take corrective action on and that the hostile work environment became a policy or custom because it was allowed to continue.

Ranni said the case, which went to trial Aug. 12, has been a long fight on behalf of his clients.

“It’s nice to accomplish change and have damages awarded that reflect that fight,” Ranni said.